Family Forever
by lockeyy20
Summary: Ethan, Clementine's older brother has always been her role model, someone she's always looked up to. Once the apocalypse hits, and everything falls apart he's the only one with her, up until Lee Everett stumbles upon the pair, and feels obligated to take them, and try to keep them safe. Will Clem's older brother still always be there, or will he change, like everyone else?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys, this is my new story. Hopefully you guys will give it a fair shot. Please review, and give constructive criticism, or don't. Up to you really, either way, thanks!**

It was a warm August day, and Lee Everett couldn't exactly enjoy it. Staring out the window of the police car he was riding in, Lee felt.. empty. That was the only word he could think of. He knew all along he was guilty. Why wouldn't he be? The evidence was clear, but still the moment he heard the jury foreman say he was, everything crumbled. Why had he done it? He didn't know. It was in a fit of rage. Just a few seconds of pure anger, and that was it. His life as a freeman was over, forever.

"Well, I reckon you didn't do it then?" Came from the front of the car in a southern accent, the balding cop that drove the car glanced up to the mirror, looking directly into Lee's eyes.

Lee looked up to the cop. He was not in a good mood, so he figured it be better to say nothing, than to lash out again.

"Hmm. No.. definitely not." Replied the cop to Lee's silence.

The cop, who's name Lee never did catch, continued to talk, he explained something about a man being caught by his son's. At this point, Lee had him completely tuned out, and was focused on the rushed police cars and helicopters and vans that all passed them, speeding back into Atlanta. Whatever was going on was obviously important, but Lee felt it had very little to do with him now.

Lee was snapped out of his daze by the police radio, which was promptly shut off by the officer, who was clearly being annoyed at this point. But still, that many cops heading towards one location seemed pretty serious.

Once again, something else caught Lee's eye, except this time, it was in the middle of the road.

"LOOK AT THE ROAD, WATCH OU-" was all Lee could manage to say before the car hit the person in the road, and started to spin out of control. As he was not wearing his seatbelt, Lee was flung all along the back of the car, before smacking his head off of something and he was out.

A few hours later, Lee awoke, still feeling very dazed, and now sore, he tried to get his bearings, from the corner of his eye he could see the body of the cop, seemingly flung from the car lying on the ground.

"Officer.. Officer! Wake up." Lee shouted towards him, and got nothing in return. Panicking, he looked for a way out of the car, seeing a cracked window by his feet, he kicked at it multiple times before breaking it.

After he had escaped the car, he made his way over to the officer, trying to wake him, he realised it was to no avail. Something was wrong, once again in a panic, Lee grabbed the keys from the body and uncuffed himself.

In less than 5 seconds, everything changed from quiet and oddly calm, to very loud, and confusing. The body had sprung to life and had jumped at Lee. This caused him to jump back, just now noticing the searing pain in his leg, he had definitely hurt it in the car crash. As he fell against side of the vehicle, the crawling body of the policeman came closer, until a voice called out, Lee's head snapped to the right, and a darker skinned boy, reached out a hand.

"Grab it, man!" The voice called out, which Lee, who had no other options, did. The boy pulled him to his feet, and tried to pull him along up the hill.

"Kid.. wait up, my knee." Lee gestured to his knee, which was bloody and cut open.

"We'll figure it out, come on man, we gotta go." The teenager, who Lee estimated to be about 16-17, replied.

Lee followed as fast as he could behind the boy, he was led into a gated backyard, which was opened by a door installed in the wooden fence.

Once he felt somewhat safe, Lee felt like collapsing onto the ground but he knew there was no time for that.

"What's your name?" Asked the adolescent, gripping a plastic baseball bat, it seemed to be his weapon, which Lee internally chuckled a bit at.

"It's.. it's Lee. What's yours?" Lee asked, trying to sound the least amount of intimidating as he could, given the circumstances.

"It's Ethan.." Replied the boy looking towards a treehouse for a split second, before turning back to Lee.

"Huh.. nice to meet you Ethan. I'm not a threat, i'm just a guy in a shitty situation. Think you can help me out?" Lee asked, once again looking at the wound on his leg.

"That.. depends." Replied Ethan, showing off a toothy grin, and starting to walk towards the house. "Follow me. Let's go."

 **A/N: There's chapter one! I'm not the best at writing, but i'm trying to get better. So I hope this was okay for a beginner, sorry if it was too long or too short.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello! It's been quite a while, huh? Well, I guess I owe you all an explanation. Obviously I haven't updated this story since June, and there is a good explanation! I failed school. Sort of. I bombed my math final which unfortunately caused me to fail the class. So I had summer school for all of July, yay! August was just kind of a relax by myself month, and then September school started again, so that was just a busy month. But, I've sorted myself out now, and I am back! So, I'd just like to quickly apologize to anybody who was excited to read the next part and never got it to the aforementioned circumstances, especially the two people who left nice reviews, but i'm back, and my goal is to update this almost everyday, anyway, on to the story!**

 _Btw, I may have messed up a bit and lost the introductions of the Clem & Lee I typed, so basically we're going to skip ahead just a few minutes when Clem, Lee and Ethan are meeting Chet & Shawn._

It had been a whirlwind of a day for Lee. It was just a few hours ago he was being told by a judge that he was sentenced to life for murder, now he was lost in some suburb outside of Atlanta with dead people trying to _**Eat**_ him. He pondered what the hell was happening to himself but he was snapped out of it by Ethan nudging him with his elbow.

"Heads up. Two guys, just outside the gate." Ethan whispered, his eyes glued to the two young men in front of them.

"Do you know them? They live around here?" Lee responded, narrowing his eyes at the two.

"Nah.. never seen them before, we should probably talk to them. They.. hopefully won't attack us. We don't look like.. The.. walkers or whatever the are."

The trio, Lee, Clem and Ethan walked through the metal gate.

"Hey there." Lee was the first to speak to the pair of men.

"WOAH MAN, WOAH DON'T EAT US!" Responded the bigger of the two men, raising his hands up to his chest in a defensive manner.

"Jesus christ dude, calm down, we're not gonna eat you." Ethan replied actually kind of smirking watching the mans freaked out reply.

"Thank god, sorry man, I'm kinda on edge. Names Chet." He replied, lowering his hands to his sides.

"Ethan. This is Lee, and my little sister Clem. Lee stumbled upon us, we're helping him out while we look for our parents." Ethan responded firmly, then turning to the skinner man next to Chet.

"I'm Shawn, Shawn Greene, I'm Chet's buddy. Hey, uh.. We're kinda stuck out here. Think you could help us out? My dad has a farm, a little ways from here, we can bring you there, help you get sorted. I gotta feeling this isn't ending tomorrow"

The others all seemed to be in agreement.

"Yeah.. we'll help out." Lee nodded.

Lee, Ethan and Clem helped the other two push the car out of the way of their truck.

"Damn. You guys are a godsend!" Shawn told the three with much enthusiasm. "Hey, you all helped out and i'm a man of my word, hop on in if you'd like and we'll head on out to the farm."

The group discussed quickly who would sit where. Clem had to sit in the front with Shawn due to not much room in the truck. Ethan hesitated but realized he could see what was happening through a window in the back so he cautiously agreed.

Lee, Ethan and Chet hopped into the bed of the truck and sat down.

"So.. uh.. Lee, what's your story man? We all got one. How we ended up here, y'know?" Chet asked settling into a corner.

"My story? Uh… before this.. I was a teacher.. Or a professor I guess, up at UGA. Taught History. Uh… I was on my way out of town when all this happened, crashed my car and ended up being rescued by the kid… Ethan I mean, the dead were closing in on my after my crash and he saved my ass." Lee motioned to Ethan to show that he was talking about him.

"Ah, damn man. I was at UGA a few years back, thought you looked familiar, never took History but i'd seen ya around. What about you kid?" Chet replied, then turned to ask the same questioned to Ethan, who still looked a bit on edge.

"Story? I don't think I have much of a story? I am.. Or was a highschool student at the regional school here. My parents were gone on vacation when all this shit happened so it was just me and my sister, I've been looking out for her waiting for our parents.. But I don't think that they're coming home.. You know?" He said, looking down a bit and closing his eyes.

"Shit kid.. I'm sorry man, I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories." Chet frowned and looked away for a bit. "The suns setting. But we ain't far out from the farm now. Just relax guys, it's safe out there. Dead un's wont.. And probably can't roam out that far, you'll be safe"

The three sat in silence before they eventually slowed down. Ethan turned his head and squinted trying to look at a sign a bit in front of him.

 _ **GREENE FAMILY FARM.**_

 **A/N: Chapter 2 is complete! Hope you enjoyed. Hopefully I'll be able to post chapter 3 tomorrow, but I promise there won't be another 3 month hiatus!**


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright, Shawn, I gotta run, Mama's gonna be real angry with me if I miss dinner again. Nice meeting y'all." Chet spoke after hopping off the back of the truck, giving a quick wave to his companions and turning to walk off, down the extending rural road.

After quickly exchanging goodbyes with Chet, the remainders of the group, Clementine, Ethan, Lee and Shawn headed towards the large house in the middle of the farm.

An older looking man with white hair and a white beard exited the house, quickly greeting his son with a hug and thanking him for making it home safely.

"Ah.. I see you've brought some guests along with you. Mind introducing me to them, son?" The man spoke in a soft voice. Turning to face the three others in front of him.

"Oh.. uh yeah, this is Lee, Clementine and Ethan. They found me and Chet out in the road, we'd been blocked off by some cars. They helped us out, made sure we got outta' there okay." Shawn informed his dad of what happened, pointing to each individual in front of him as he introduced them.

"Hm, I see. Lee is it?" Hershel spoke, obviously looking to the tallest of the three strangers. "You these kids father? Uncle maybe? Guardian? You know them?"

"Act-" Lee spoke, but he was quickly interrupted by Ethan, who spoke in a much louder voice than Lee had.

"Nope. Not our dad or anything. Lee is a neighbour, he was a good friend of our parents. We know him pretty well, no need to worry. We're in good hands here." Ethan put on his best smile and seemed relatively convincing in his words.

Lee was quite confused as to why Ethan was 'looking out for him'. They didn't know each other well at all, and they certainly weren't neighbours. He would have to try and figure out why Ethan had protected him from any suspicion.

"I see now. Nice to see you looking out for these kids Lee. According to my son here, things are so bad, most people would've up and left by themselves." Hershel responded, seeming to relax a bit after Ethan eased his suspicion of Lee.

"Speaking of that Dad.. we really need to reinforce the fence around the farm. Things are getting really bad out there, and we're gonna need more protection than just a regular picket fence." Shawn looked around the farms fences. It was definitely in need of improvement if they were to be protected from the walkers.

"Shawn.. If you really feel it's necessary you can. Waste if you ask me though." Hershel replied to his son.

"It's not, dad. I'm telling you. It's real, what's happening out there is scary as hell and we're gonna need to protect this place. We can't just passively sit by and wait for something to happen."

"Shawn, please. I already said you can do whatever you feel like you need to, just don't back talk me."

Shawn seemed to back down after this and turned back to Lee, turning his attention to the wound that was still open and dangerous to Lee's health.

"Dad.. Lee he's.. He's hurt kind of badly, think you could patch him up? Or atleast see what you can do?" Shawn said, in a quieter than normal voice. He seemed to be a bit upset at his father's tone to his advice.

"Sure can. Shawn.. Please go check on your sisters. I'll check out your friends knee here." Hershel said, after quickly glancing at Lee's knee. "Come on up, I'll give it a quick look over and fix you right up." Hershel smiled at Lee and motioned to a chair on the short porch.

"Doctor?" Lee inquired as he sat on the chair Hershel had invited him to rest himself on.

"Vet actually. Normally with farm animals, but I think i'll be able to patch you up." Hershel affirmed Lee and quickly rolled up his pant leg to check out the wound.

"It's a tractor for doing.. Stuff in the fields, I think. Farmers sit on it, and drive it around.. And it makes food or something." Both Hershel and Lee turned their heads to the left and saw Ethan pointing to the tractor on the opposite side of the farm. Ethan seemed to be explaining what the tractor did to his little sister.. Or was trying to explain it at least.

"Real noble of you, taking these kids under your care Lee. Bigger man than most, these days." Hershel didn't look up at Lee, instead he took a close look at the cut on Lee's leg.

"Yeah.. uh thanks, Doc. I.. I don't think I actually got your name?" Lee responded, nodding his appreciation to the Vet, before inquiring about his name.

"Hershel. Hershel Greene. As you have probably already figured out, this here is my farm. Or my families farm, I suppose. Been around for a few generations actually. Damn miracle how I've kept it running this long, Lee." Hershel explained the history of the farm as he seemed to dig in on the leg, apply some disinfectant, cleaning the wound, dressing it and rolling down the pant leg.

"Wow. Feels brand new." Lee laughed a bit as he spoke and slowly stood up. "Thanks Hershel." Lee extended a hand to thank his healer.

"Not a problem, Lee. Anything for someone who will help my family like you helped my son today." Hershel shook the hand of Lee before his eyes darted towards the barn at the back of the large plot of land. "You and your company are more than welcome to sleep in the barn back there for tonight. There's family of three in there as well."

"Thanks Hershel, I really do appreciate it. We'll have to repay you somehow." Lee honestly seemed a bit surprised by the hospitality of a stranger.

"No need. You've already done enough. Have a good night Lee. You too, kids!" Hershel responded with a wave to the two younger kids before entering the house.

Lee quickly walked down the steps towards the two kids. He informed them of the offer to sleep in the barn for the night. There was no disagreement whatsoever, they all knew they needed rest and the barn seemed to be a good enough place for the night.

"So.. Ethan. Why did you do that?" Lee asked the young man as they made their way towards the barn.

"Do what?" Ethan replied, innocently. Obviously pretending like it wasn't quite clear what Lee was talking about.

"Lying back there. About us being neighbours. There was no need for you to lie to that man." Lee responded, not seeming angry at all. Just confused.

"Lee, think about it. Which sounds better? A nice friendly neighbour looking out for us? Or a random guy whose life I saved after he crashed inside of a cop car just outside of my house. Use your head man. You'd be out there on your own if he heard the real story. You're welcome by the way." Ethan laughed as he finished his little spiel.

Lee had no real response, though he now understood why Ethan had lied. He wasn't wrong. The three made it to the barn a few seconds later. They sorted out where they were going to sleep and all quickly settled in. Clementine and Ethan talked for a few minutes before they said goodnight to each other and turned in for the night.

A new day tomorrow. Their new life had begun.

 **A/N: Wow! A chapter that didn't take 3 months to write. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this one. Thanks for reading and take care!**


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